Leadership and management are often frequently used interchangeably by corporates. While the difference between the two may seem frivolous at first, there is a vast difference between them. Comprehending the difference between both becomes the first step for every businessperson to become an influential leader.
While leadership and management go hand in hand, both possess unique traits that every professional must know to thrive. This article will pose as your perfect guide to understand the distinction between leadership vs management and steer your endeavors in the right direction. So, let us dive right in!
Defining Leadership and Management
What is Leadership?
Leadership employs the power to influence the thoughts and actions of people. It consists of aligning the team with a high-level company vision possessing the goal of innovation. Leaders take the responsibility of guiding people in the right direction by offering inspiration, support, and motivation.
While doing that, leaders also check in to ensure that everyone is working on the right track. But they seldom get included in making tactical decisions. Leaders are the ones who choose the destination on the map. They encompass a great personality, splendid behavior, and motivational beliefs.
What is Management?
Our next step to understand the difference between leadership and management is to grasp the meaning of management. Management is imperative for executing the leader’s vision. Managers possess the tactical skills to reach that destination chosen by the leaders. They oversee the working of the team and how to achieve the company vision.
It involves assigning tasks to the members of a team, harmonious collaboration, and reaching short-term goals. But the key point to note here is that not all managers are leaders. While leadership is about inspiring people, management is about goal planning. It deals with control, competence, and equitable distribution of power.
Key Difference Between Leadership and Management
Goa-Based Personality of Managers vs. Visionary Personality of Leaders
Managers exhibit control and rationality. A manager is often a problem solver with directing energies towards goals, organization, resources, or people. Managers focus on the achievement of the company goals with persistence, hard work, and analytical ability. They possess tough-mindedness and tolerance to meet the set company objectives.
Leaders, on the other hand, encompass a visionary personality. They possess a lucid vision of the organizational goals. They then take upon the responsibility of leading the people by good examples. They take on challenging tasks and hold the team together to chart a successful path in the future.
Risk-Taking and Goal Assessment
Leaders have a strong will to try novel things and take risks even if there exists a chance of it failing miserably. Their definition of failure often reflects another step on the path to achievement. Whereas, managers work constantly to minimize the risks. Their nature is to control or avoid problems instead of embracing them. Leaders in an organization are proactive while managers play a reactive role.
Leaders have long-term goal intentionality. They stay committed to their aims and remain motivated towards distant goals. They hold the personality of looking for rewards in the longer run. While managers often work on short-term goals. They intend to seek regular acknowledgments or continuous accolades.
Inspiring People vs. Driving Success
What is the difference between leadership and management in work experience? Leaders hold a striking power for inspiring people while managers remain responsible for driving their achieved success throughout the employee’s career. Managers are directly responsible for around 70% of employee engagement and look after the productivity of the teams.
Leaders empower the workforce via authentic communication, self-reflection, and continuous feedback. Employees often feel less stressed and can work better under pressure when their leaders engage with them regularly. Leaders innovate ideas and pursue those ideas while managers organize these ideas and execute them.
Advantages of Being a Leader
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To be a leader in an organization commands numerous benefits:
- Onboarding employees for shared company vision
- More control over the job
- Amplifies your decision-making power
- Increased autonomy at work
- Ability to inspire and innovate employees
- Boost productivity
- Best leaders spot big opportunities
- Lead a good business culture
- Encourage others to take risks
Why Become a Leader?
Some professionals are natural leaders. They comprehend the visionary and strategic side of businesses. It allows them to take on the role of great coaches. They merge this quality with the requirements necessary to make every business successful.
Without leaders, organizations would simply crumble. Leaders make it possible for companies to inspire employees to perform better.
Here are some key points of leadership:
- Leaders possess a long-term vision
- Leaders lead as role-models
- Inspire teams and keeps their loyalty intact
- Great motivators
- Splendid communicators
- A positive and optimistic attitude
- Risk takers and embrace challenges
- See the bigger picture
- Inspire and motivates people
Remote Leadership in times of the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic challenged traditional ways of working in organizations for workplaces globally. Firms quickly and successfully adapted to remote work with just a little preparation. It calls for leaders of firms to lead and inspire their remote teams to work productively in the ongoing pandemic.
Below are some key points that every leader ought to keep in mind while leading their remote teams:
- Communication- Foster communication daily via audio and video calls to ensure that your remote teams in different time zones are working towards the company vision.
- Compassion- Leaders ought to lead their remote teams with compassion. They must go the extra mile and ensure that their team is working without much stress and anxiety.
- Set Clear Goals- Set clear objectives and expectations to achieve the best outcomes and keep everybody motivated.
- Connect Emotionally- Do not make it all about work. Connect to your employees emotionally to make them feel supported.
- Harness Technology- Utilize PowerPoint presentations and other software to accelerate and simplify work processes.
It is important to have both impressive managers and leaders at a workplace. Every organization requires great leaders to lead it and achieve its vision. They also demand good managers for getting things done seamlessly and keep everyone aligned to organizational goals.
A true leader displays the courage to take tough decisions and also lead the company towards the path of success. Thus, leadership becomes the pillar to hold the company together in times of remote working.
